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Select mode Six players from the 15-member one-day squad that battled Australia, including Virender Sehwag, are from Delhi.
Photo: PTI Disadvantage doping Weight & watch: Flunking the dope tests recently has brought Indian weightlifters under the scanner again. Fitness
Mantra
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Are domestic performances alone the basis or do the selectors use other yardsticks, too, to pick the Indian squad, asks
Abhijit Chatterjee
How important are domestic tournaments in the scheme of the national selectors of the BCCI? Are teams for internationals, one-dayers and Tests as also twenty20, selected on the basis of domestic performances alone or do the selectors use some other yardstick to pick the Indian squad. Going by the way the National Cricket Championship is being conducted this year, it is doubtful whether the national selectors would be able to find the time to watch the domestic matches given the fact that the national squad has a packed schedule at home this winter. And the selectors, per force, would have to watch all the international games since they would be played at home. Last year, Mumbai had won the National Cricket Championship (NCC) for the Ranji Trophy but only two players of the state, Sachin Tendulkar (who can walk into any national squad irrespective of the state he represents) and Zaheer Khan, have been inducted into the national squad, battling it out with the islanders from Sri Lanka in the Test series. The one-day team too had just one Mumbai player, Tendulkar (who else), in the squad. Uttar Pradesh had finished runners-up to Mumbai in the NCC but it had as many as three players, Praveen Kumar, S.Tyagi and Suresh Raina, in the squad, which battled Australia in the seven- match one-day series. However, Uttar Pradesh does not have a single player in the Test squad. And remember that the NCC is played in the traditional format! In contrast, as many as six members of the 15-member one-day squad which battled Australia, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Ghambir, Ishant Sharma, Asish Nehra, Virat Kohli and Amit Mishra (who shifted to Haryana after being neglected by the powers that run cricket in the Capital) were from Delhi. The Test team too has four players, Sehwag, Ghambir, Ishant Sharma and Amit Sharma, from Delhi. (Just for reference, the 1983 World Cup winning team had just five players from the entire north zone, skipper Kapil Dev of Haryana, Yashpal Sharma, and Mohinder Amarnath, Kirti Azad and Madan Lal, all from Delhi). It seems that Delhi as well as its neighbourhood, towns like Ghaziabad (from where players like Suresh Raina, Praveen Kumar and Tyagi hail), are emerging as the new home of Indian cricket after the mantle was held by Mumbai for a long time and briefly by Bangalore One reason why cricketers from Delhi and other states from the northern region are doing well is the fact that more and more youngsters from there are taking to the game, thanks to the large number of coaching centres being set up, some by the governments but more by former players. The composition of the Indian team team is slowly but surely changing as more and more players from smaller cricketing centres are donning national colours. If the captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni is from Jharkhand, a state with no cricketing background, in the Test squad of 15 are players like S. Sreesanth from Kerala and Pragyan Ojha, from Orissa, two more states with no cricketing history to talk about, while two other players, S. Badrinath and M. Vijay, are from Tamil Nadu, a state which is calling the shots when it comes to administration of Indian cricket. The composition of the one-day squad also exhibited the same diversity. There were players from Saurashtra (Rajinder Jadeja) and Gujarat (Munaf Patel) in the playing eleven. To enable more and more players to become eligible for national duty, the board could try working out a system where players included in the squad of 15 but not included in the playing eleven for international fixtures should be released for their respective states when the national cricket championship is on. This will serve two purposes: one, the state from where the player hails will be able to put up a better show; and second, it might draw some paying spectators to the ground. |
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Disadvantage doping
After what the sports minister had to say about the disgraceful doping mess in the ‘iron game,’ the members of the executive committee of the Weightlifting Federation of India (WFI) had little choice but to tender their resignation en masse. In recent weeks, half a dozen weightlifters have tested positive in out-of-competition tests conducted by WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency. Lashing out at the WFI, M.S. Gill said its officials owed the country an apology, appropriately choosing to do so at the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan sports meet. It is the young who have to be advised early in their lives against the dangers of doping. Not that the young have not been advised earlier by well-meaning elders to be “clean” and avoid cheating, and the punishment and ignominy that goes with it. But in their quest of medals and cash awards, weightlifters of both genders have been falling victim to temptation. Not that athletes in other sports are totally free of blame. They too resort to performance-enhancing drugs in spite of being made aware, through the printed as well as the spoken word, of the grievous risks to health caused by such drugs. But then, there are also the ‘rogue’ experts who administer ‘masking’ drugs. Remember Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter with rippling muscles, who won the 100 m at the 1988 Olympic Games at Seoul? The sensation his positive test created a couple of days later left a numbing effect on the athletic world. Marion Jones, the multiple American gold medalist sprinter at the Sydney Olympic of 2000, was in tears as she admitted years later to taking performance-enhancing drugs and was sentenced to a term in prison. Of course, the medals were taken back. Even Diego Maradona, the now paunchy Argentinian World Cup-winning football hero, at present the team’s coach serving a two-month suspension for using expletive-laden language with journalists, has been guilty of using performance-enhancing as well as prohibited recreational drugs like cocaine. And now, the tennis legend has shattered the tennis world by confessing in his book Open that he took crystal meth, another drug of the recreational variety. Like this writer, many a reader must have come across good doctors who view this fad for six packs and bulging biceps with suspicion as also the attractively packaged food supplements sold over the counter with promises of promoting health and strength. Many young people have visited their doctors only when it is too late. The powders, pills and syringes have already done too much damage to the vital organs by then. There was a time when athletes, including weightlifters, sustained themselves on what you would describe a daal-roti diet. For example, Balbir Singh Bhatia, who dominated Indian weightlifting for 13 years in his younger days. In the days he was in college in Delhi, he would train at the Birla Mandir vyayamshala on days he had a few free periods. Pleased by the dedication of the handsome young Sikh, a member of the rich Birla clan left instructions with the temple staff to supply the weightlifter a ser (a little less than a litre) of fresh milk whenever the lad turned up for training, which was quite frequent. “I was pleased no end with the kind gesture, for that was the extra diet I had,” remembers Balbir Singh. Balbir is happy that things like steroids and food supplements were unheard of in the years he grew up. Not in India, at least. As fit as any man can be at 75, the former weightlifting legend thanks God for it. You could say the same of Milkha Singh, the “Flying Sikh”, hurdler Gurbachan Randhawa or middle-distance runner Sri Ram Singh, all Olympic finalists, who would avoid even ordinarily available headache tablets, so to speak. They were great athletes all. And what is important, they are all more than healthy for their advanced years. “Thank God,” as Balbir would say, that clandestine dispensers of steroids, or performance- enhancing drugs, had not made their advent into our shores. But once sportspersons became aware of the drugs, you saw more and more of them swallowing those pills, getting caught and even dying from the harmful effect of prolonged overdose. Not even pre-competition testing could prevent them from taking the risk of ingesting steroids. We saw how a few of our women lifters tested positive at the Athens Olympics in 2004 after being cleared in tests at home. It will be the ultimate disgrace if Indian weightlifters are banned from taking part in next year’s Commonwealth Games. International rules provide a one-year suspension for any federation six of whose lifters are found positive in a year. |
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Fitness
Mantra
Fruits are nature’s gift to mankind. They are beautiful and tasty bundles of healthy nutrients. Nothing is more pleasing to the eye than a tree laden with ripe fruits. Fruits are an excellent source of Vitamin A (which is good for the hair and eyes) Vtamin C, (helps in neutralising free radicals), potassium (which regulates blood pressure), magnesium (helps in relaxing muscles and protecting the heart against disease). Fruits are also a good source of soluble fibre which is helpful in decreasing cholesterol. They are rich in antioxidants and help the body constantly to clean up the toxic waste. The colourful pigment present in fruits like grapes (which contain a strong cancer-fighting substance), peaches( which are a good source of dietary fiber which helps to regulate the digestive system, clean the intestines and combat cancer), pomegranates (which are packed with lots of antioxidants that may help in maintaining a smooth and wrinkle-free skin), mulberries, oranges, cherries, jamun, papaya, mango and apple help us fight the ravages of chronic diseases and malignancies. One should try and eat at least one coloured fruit a day. Some fruits are an excellent source of Vitamins A and C. They include oranges, peach, guava, pomegranate, sweet lime, lime, malta, mosambi, mango and amla. These fruits also help in the absorption of iron. They boost our immune system and provide resistance against certain diseases. Consumption of these fruits can give you a glowing and wrinkle-free skin and shiny healthy hair. Vitamin B6-rich fruits are the healthiest and the cheapest medium to curb stress. This category includes banana, guava, papaya, watermelon, loquat and strawberries. Lack of Vitamins B6 in diet can cause weakness, irritability and insomnia. So, you have the choice, either introduce some of these tasty fruits regularly in your diet or be addicted to those bitter pills which invariably give you a hangover. Dietary fibre plays a major role in our daily lifestyle. It has the health benefit of cleansing the intestine, aiding in digestion, lessening the risk of developing cancer and helps in lowering cholesterol. Fibre-rich fruits are apple, orange, peach, pomegranate, guava, papaya, mango, pineapple, loquat, prunes and custard apple. You will get 10 gm of fibre by eating two big sized guavas. Mangoes also contain pectin, a soluble fibre which has been shown to lower blood cholesterol levels. Certain fruits like papaya contain enzymes like papain, which aids digestion. Pineapple contains bromelain, which has been found to be anti-inflammatory and effective in reducing swelling. Some fruits are known to have medicinal properties like bael. It has a high tannin content which makes it an effective cure for dysentery and cholera. It is regarded as the best of all laxatives as it cleans and tones up the intestine. Prunes are particularly rich in potassium, which can help reduce the risk of high blood pressure. We come to this conclusion that all fruits have something special in store for us. So, why not be adventurous and try out different fruits. One need not limit oneself to expensive fruits. Try seasonal fruits. They would be cheaper and low on pesticides.
Juicy details
In a nutshell, eat at least one fruit a day. The more colourful the fruit is, the better! |
How important are domestic tournaments in the scheme of the national selectors of the
BCCI? Are teams for internationals, one-dayers and Tests as also twenty20, selected on the basis of domestic performances alone or do the selectors use some other yardstick to pick the Indian squad.
After what the sports minister had to say about the disgraceful doping mess in the ‘iron game,’ the members of the executive committee of the Weightlifting Federation of India (WFI) had little choice but to tender their resignation en masse. In recent weeks, half a dozen weightlifters have tested positive in out-of-competition tests conducted by WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency.
